Review by bringmybooks - The Willow Wren

bringmybooks 's review for:

The Willow Wren by Philipp Schott

4.25

challenging dark emotional sad slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Thank you to NetGalley & ECW Press for the opportunity to read and review this book before it's publication date! This in no way affected my review, opinions are my own.

This was a stunningly beautiful book, even as it described in great detail the horrors of war. I often found myself getting lost in the language and the phrasing that Philipp Schott used, going back over sentences and paragraphs; reading them out loud to my husband just so I could share them with someone.

This isn't your typical WWII novel, and whereas I don't think the synopsis does the reader a disservice, necessarily, it is worth mentioning that the novel is a lot less of the thrilling escape that it seems it will be. It's more of an intricate look into the depths of human nature that coincides with a family leaving Germany (past the 90% mark).

There is a lot of introspection and descriptive writing in this book (including almost an entire chapter on the particulars of mushroom foraging in wartime, which I found fascinating but which admittedly will not be everyone's cup of tea). I found it incredibly well written and loved the author's note at the end - while it's not the type of WWII novel I normally find myself reading, I think it was all the better for it.

I would definitely recommend this to other readers of WWII Historical Fiction, especially if you like learning more about the historical aspects.

Content Warnings